If by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people - their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties - someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad; if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal."
- John F. Kennedy

Sunday, February 26, 2006

More Chicken Dancing

You knew it was going to happen. You knew that some scheme to allow Shrub to save face over his temper tantrum and obvious lack of engagement on the Dubai Ports fiasco would raise its ugly head. Time is reporting that a deal is in the works that will make everyone happy.

Here is the money quote from an unamed Senate Republican aide:

"This avoids a direct clash," the aide said. "It solves everyone's problem. The President doesn't have to cancel the deal or veto anything."

If you read the article carefully you will note that nothing is really changing. The UAE is not changing the deal but only delaying the actual takeover of the 21 U.S. ports for 45 days so that the plan can be "re-vetted".

The reality is that Bush and company with the conspiracy of Frist and the boys are just taking this out of the limelight for 6 weeks or so in the dear hope that everyone will be preoccupied by some other atrocity by the time the deal goes through. I'm pretty sure the civil war in Iraq will garner enough media bandwidth by then that no one will notice. It's a strategy that has worked over and over again for Bush and company. Give the rubes something else to chew on and the won't notice the man behind the curtain.

I don't where the term "chicken dancing" came from but we used to use it in sales presentations when we were basically selling "vaporware". Distract the client from asking meaningful questions about functionality and performance and dazzle them with eye candy and fancy footwork.